The Forward Day by Day Meditation for February 1, 2016

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MONDAY, February 1

John 6:34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, the devil Screwtape tries to encourage his nephew Wormwood to capture a human soul for Satan. When the demons in hell threaten to tear Wormwood apart and devour him, Wormwood appeals to Screwtape’s affection for him. Screwtape replies, “I think they will give you to me now, or a bit of you. Love you? Why yes. As dainty a morsel as ever I grew fat on.”

The idea that sin perverts all good things into evil, including love, pervades Christian writing and gives me the willies. It is creepy, the ease with which love for a child could become something grasping and demanding, how quickly spouses can come to use each other instead of loving each other, how we can easily, even unconsciously, exploit the poverty of people whom Christ enjoins us to love and serve. It can feel like every human action has the potential to devour someone.

I take comfort in the power of grace to clean up the mess. Through compassion and prayer, Christ infuses himself into the system that sin conspires to corrupt.